Speed Run of Playstation 2's "God of War"
By: Prism
Completed October 1, 2005
17 segments

You'll see me do two things many, many times throughout the run: roll-cancel and saw. Roll-canceling is when you roll, then do an action (like hit square), but then roll again before it gets started. Doing this lets Kratos travel across the ground much faster than walking. A varation of this is roll->R2 (dash)->(repeat); this has the added benefit of letting you steer Kratos during the dash move. The other thing I do a lot is saw. Saw is a term I made up that refers to the move that Kratos does when you hit square, then triangle. It's a two-hit attack that goes upwards (not the swings, which go downward, but where the enemies end up), and is useful to get enemies into the air to death bounce them or simply to deal damage (since it executes faster than just hitting triangle).

I chose to upgrade the Blades of Chaos fully for the infinite magic bonus while in Rage of the Gods mode, which I feel is a requirement to keep your sanity during the Kratos clones fight. The additional moves (and damage) you learn also make the later enemies easier: the Achilles Flip is a great way to get the later Minataurs airborne to death-bounce them, the Hercules combos are a great way to deal damage, and the Hades Revenge makes Kratos have a much better defense than to just stand and block/roll away. I leveled up Medusa's Gaze to level 2 for the Gorgon Flash ability, and to help stone enemies quicker. I ignore that item most always as it's boring to me, but for speed purposes, it can't be beat. I also leveled Zeus' Fury to level 2; it helps against the Desert Sirens, and... not too much else. At only 750 red orbs for the upgrade though, it's so cheap, why not. I maxed Army of Hades as well, they help a ton against Ares and the clone battle.

A definite low point of the run is The Challenge of Hades segment. It was giving me troubles and I just wanted it done. The two jumps after sacrificing the eight Cenataurs was where I kept dying, so I used an air dash for some more distance. And the Halls of Hades immediately after... it was bad all around! The rest of the run is pretty good though, and my favorite is the Cliffs of Madness. I wish there was an entire Cliffs of series on your way up to Pandora's Temple instead of having Kratos climb it in a cut scene.

If you wanted to see the story AND the gameplay, you'll be glad to know the game doesn't let you skip cut scenes (unless you've seen it, then died/restarted, but this is a no-deaths run).

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews